


Devil Take the Hindmost

by Ravenhoot



Series: Sympathy For The Devil [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Wings, Biblical References, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Could Be Canon, Cute Lucifer, Depowered Lucifer, F/M, Fallen Angel, Fallen Angel Lucifer, Grief/Mourning, Human Lucifer (Supernatural), Lucifer Redemption, Profanity, Redemption, Religious Discussion, Religious Slurs, Swearing, cursing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-02 09:33:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19196215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenhoot/pseuds/Ravenhoot
Summary: Maggie knows the Winchesters see her as something of a surrogate little sister. She also knows that she's in love with the devil, which complicates things greatly. The decisions she makes will impact not only herself but Lucifer's son Jack. All Maggie wants is to find some neutral ground where everyone can get along amicably... but with the threat of Apocalypse World Michael lurking close by, that doesn't seem likely.Takes place sometime during Season 13. Not exactly canon timeline-compliant but I tried to be consistent.





	1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

Maggie wasn’t sure of the particulars on the arrangement for the human soul that belonged to the vessel. She didn’t know a thing about the vessel Lucifer was currently housed in, other than he was the most ruggedly handsome man she’d ever laid her eyes on. On the few occasions they’d had run-ins with each other, she’d found herself highly conflicted. She wondered if she was just shallow and that his vessel was what attracted her to him. She’d definitely felt a spark of something when he’d been possessing his brother, Castiel; but Castiel’s vessel was a man named Jimmy (who was also awfully easy on the eyes). Would she even be interested if he were in a different, unattractive vessel?

She thought back to when he’d been possessing the President. Before she’d known it was him, she had surprised herself by seeing a televised press conference at the White House. She’d never considered the President to be attractive before; sure, he was a good-looking man, but he’d never struck her as her “type.” Until that afternoon when she’d been nursing her third beer for the day and stopped channel surfing at the press conference. She couldn’t even remember what it was about, but she found herself inexplicably drawn to the President. Try as she might, she couldn’t ever figure out what had suddenly made him so appealing to her.

Later, when they’d discovered Lucifer had been possessing the President, Maggie really wondered what she’d gotten herself into. Shortly after that discovery, Charlie had come sauntering into the rec room but stopped short when she saw Maggie’s distressed expression.

“What’s wrong with you?” Charlie asked. “It’s like you’ve seen… well, I was going to joke and say ‘a ghost’ but it’s not as funny once it becomes a totally viable possibility.”

She flopped down on the couch next to Maggie and glanced at the television. A news story about the President’s assassination attempt was paused. “Seriously, though, what’s the matter?” Charlie crossed her legs and pulled open a bag of Doritos. She offered the open end of the bag to Maggie, who took a chip and held it suspended a few inches from her mouth, still staring at the image of President Rooney on the TV.

“I think I’m in love with the Devil,” she proclaimed.


	2. Chapter 2

Maggie scanned her modest room and mentally checked off everything she’d packed, making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. She gave the room a curt nod of approval, confident that she had everything she needed, and slung the duffel bag’s strap over her shoulder. She briskly made her way to the library where she found the boys exactly where she’d expected them to be - Sam was reading a dusty volume off the shelves and Dean was slicing a club sandwich in half while nagging his brother. 

“Where are you off to?” Dean asked, looking up from his sandwich as Maggie opened the panel that held all of the car keys. 

“I told you guys already - Claire called me last night and asked for a hand with that pair of Djinns that are causing trouble in Indiana,” Maggie replied, chewing on her bottom lip as she pondered the rows of car keys and wondering which car to take.

“Why can’t Crissy help her?” Dean bemoaned. 

Crissy, the orphaned daughter of another hunter that Sam and Dean had helped in the past, had found her way to Jody’s several months previously. She surprised everyone when she formed a close friendship with Claire Novak. Claire was “rough around the edges” as Dean put it and generally shied away from anyone who was friendly to her. But she and Crissy had become inseparable and Dean was glad for it - both girls could use a friend. Alex, the first girl Jody took in after taking down the vampire nest that had kidnapped the girl, had chosen not to go the hunter route and instead, had gone to college and was now a nurse. Even though she’d given up hunting, she was still willing to help out by patching up any minor wound the other girls came home with. 

“Because Crissy is with Charlie chasing down a lead on a werewolf pack in Louisiana,” Maggie replied with an exasperated sigh. The boys were so overprotective of... well, everyone. 

“Alright well... just be careful and check in when you get there.”

“Dean... I’m not twelve,” Maggie retorted playfully. Truthfully, she expected nothing less from a surrogate older brother, but it could get tiresome after a while. 

“But you’ll always be younger than me, kiddo,” he replied before taking an inhumanly large bite of his sandwich. 

“Dude, you’re like a year older than me, if that. Sam even acts like a worried older brother, and he’s  _ younger _ than me!” 

Dean shrugged in a “well, what are ya gonna do?” manner. 

Maggie reached for a set of keys off the board and wondered what she should tell them next. She decided on the car first. 

“I’m taking the GTO,” she said casually. 

“Atta girl,” Dean nodded appreciatively. “Might as well go in style.”

“Oh and...” Maggie took a deep breath. This was the part they’d probably fight her on. “I think Jack should come with me.”

For the first time since Maggie entered the library, Sam looked up from his book. “Why?” He asked slowly. 

“Because he’s been in this bunker for  _ weeks _ . He’s probably forgotten what the sun looks like,” she explained calmly. “Besides, he could use the hunting experience.”

It was true Maggie wanted Jack to get more experience with hunting the different kinds of monsters they encountered, but it wasn’t the only reason she wanted to bring him along. Although if she told the boys, they’d most definitely not let Jack leave with her. If Sam and Dean were overprotective of the rest of their rag-tag family, they practically had Jack on lockdown.

“No way,” Sam said immediately, closing his book with a snap. Maggie couldn’t help but notice he hadn’t even marked his place. This wasn’t looking good for her. “It’s too dangerous for Jack to be out casually hunting monsters.”

“You have no faith in him,” Maggie said with a sad shake of her head. The car keys dangled loosely off her pinkie finger. 

“We  _ do _ have faith in him,” Sam argued. “But if anything found out what he is, they’d try to use him for their own purposes. We already saw that with Asmodaeus.”

“So, your solution is to just keep him locked in an underground fortress for his entire life?”

“Of course not,” Sam said, shaking his hair from his eyes. “But Lucifer is still out there somewhere and until we know what he’s up to, it’s best if Jack stays here where we can protect him.”

Maggie’s stomach did a backflip at Sam’s mention of Lucifer. She tried to keep her tone even when she replied. “But... Lucifer’s human now, isn’t he? I mean, without his grace, how much of a threat is he, really?” 

“Don’t for one second assume that just because he’s human, Lucifer isn’t a threat,” Sam said darkly.

Dean had been unusually quiet since Maggie had mentioned taking Jack with her. She looked at him for support. If she could convince him, he'd help convince Sam. Neither one of them knew her secret, but she figured that of the two of them, Dean would be more understanding. Sam - he wouldn’t... couldn’t understand.

"Let the kid live a little," Maggie urged. "Besides, I'm pretty sure he's got a sweet spot for Claire."

“Aww, c’mon, Sammy,” Dean finally said. “Mags has a point - it’s not fair to keep the kid here like he’s some kind of prisoner. If I trust anyone to look out for him aside from us, it’s Maggie.” 

Sam was considering Maggie’s proposal. His mouth was a tight, thin line and his brow was furrowed as it was when he was thinking hard. 

“And hey, who knows,” Dean continued. “If Claire finds out we didn't let him go, she'll very likely drive here and kick our asses.”

Sam realized he was outnumbered and his shoulders drooped in defeat. “Fine, if he wants to go, he can go... but I’d feel better about the whole thing if Cas drops in and checks on you guys periodically.”

“Deal,” Maggie said immediately. 

“I guess I’ll go give Jack a run-down of djinn and what to look out for,” Sam said.

“Already did it,” Maggie replied quickly. “He’s already in the garage waiting for me.”

Sam glanced from Dean to Maggie several times, feeling like he’d been set up. “Maggie... you can be a real pain in the ass, sometimes. You know that?” 

“Sure do,” Maggie answered with a smirk. She gave each of the boys a one-armed hug and headed for the garage. In the doorway, she turned around and said, “In the words of my dear friend Charlie, ‘peace out, bitches!’” 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this obviously doesn't line up with the canon-timeline but I don't really care.

They were about halfway through Kansas when Jack nearly made Maggie run off the road. 

“Maggie?”

“Hmm?” 

“You know him better than probably anyone else on Earth...” 

“Who?” She replied conversationally, not really paying attention to the conversation and keeping a lookout for her upcoming exit.

“Lucifer,” Jack replied softly. 

Maggie looked over sharply at Jack and involuntarily jerked the steering wheel to the right. She forced herself to breathe normally and keep her eyes on the road. 

“What makes you say that?”

“Charlie told me. I was asking questions about my... y’know, my  _ real _ father, and Charlie said the best person to answer any questions would be you. Why would she say that?” Jack looked so genuinely perplexed; Maggie almost felt bad for him. Charlie was the only one who knew... and she was just as loyal to Maggie as she was to the boys. 

“Um... well, I’ve... dealt with Lucifer in the past, so-”

“But Sam was possessed by Lucifer,” Jack persisted. “I said as much to Charlie, but she told me, under no circumstances, am I to ask Sam about what he’s like.”

Maggie noticed a sign that said her exit was 38 miles away. She relaxed a bit and loosened her grip on the steering wheel.

"The thing about Sam," she explained, “is that he’s had nothing but negative experiences with Lucifer, so anything he tells you about him will be through that lens.”

“And you haven’t?” 

“Haven’t what?” Maggie asked.

“Had negative experiences with him,” Jack supplied. 

“Not entirely, no,” she answered quietly. Maggie reached for the braid that hung over her right shoulder and absentmindedly twisted the end of it. Snippets of memories flashed through her mind. 

_ Mediating between a surly Lucifer (while possessing Castiel) and Chuck before the showdown with Amara.  _

_ “Guard duty” of Lucifer while Sam, Dean, Chuck, and Crowley made a plan to beat Amara. Sneaking into the “dungeon” in the middle of the night to talk to him until dawn and sneaking back to bed before anyone else woke up (although, did God even sleep? Probably not). _

_ The feeling of relief when Amara blasted Lucifer out of Castiel when she could have easily killed him (the group consensus was that if she’d killed her brother’s favorite son, he would never forgive her).  _

_ The slight jealousy of finding out he’d conceived a child with the woman who was having an affair with the President.  _

_ The overwhelming relief and slight revulsion of finding out what would inevitably happen to the mother of a Nephilim once it’s born.  _

_ The sensation of fire and ice colliding the first time he kissed her and the lingering tingle afterwards that left her perpetually wanting more. _

_ The indescribable feeling of being wrapped in wings she couldn’t see when they made love. _

_The pure desperation when he’d come to her for help in finding his son._

 

“Everyone tells me he’s evil,” Jack broke the silence - and her reminiscing. 

Maggie sighed. She knew this wouldn’t be easy, but she found that when she tried to explain, it became harder than she’d imagined it would be. How did she get here? She was once a normal, boring woman who worked on a ranch after college and nothing remotely exciting ever happened to her. Now, she was trying to explain the complexity of the fallen archangel to his illegitimate half-human, half-angel son. 

“He is... and he isn’t,” she said. 

“That clears nothing up,” Jack said with a sad smile. 

“I know,” Maggie admitted. “But it’s so much more complicated than that. When you play a role for so long, you end up becoming the role you played. There’s no denying that he’s done some truly horrible things. But he’s done some good things too. Selfless things. He saved my life once...” she trailed off, twisting the end of her braid again. 

“He did?” Jack marveled. 

Maggie nodded. “I had ignored Sam and Dean and went off on a hunt by myself. A wendigo attacked me. I managed to get away but got turned around in the woods and couldn't find my way back to my car. I was hurt pretty bad. By the time the boys found me, my wounds were infected and I almost died from the fever.”

Jack hung on to her every word. “So what happened?”

“Well...” Maggie started to tell the rest of the story and stopped short, thinking of a better idea. “You can see people’s memories if you want to, right?”

“I’ve been getting better at it, yeah,” Jack replied with a modest shrug. 

Maggie extended her arm to him. She knew physical contact was required to form the link. “Go ahead. See for yourself.”

Jack hesitated, but his curiosity eventually won and he wrapped his hand gently around Maggie’s wrist.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_ Maggie’s head lolled against Sam’s shoulder as he carried her out of the woods, breathing hard and running as fast as his legs would carry him. Dean brought up the rear, firing his flare gun wildly over his shoulder.  _

_ They reached the edge of the woods where the Impala was waiting. Sam deposited Maggie roughly into the backseat. Seconds later, the tires screeched against the asphalt in their hasty retreat.  _

_ Dean kept glancing sharply between the road and the backseat. “Sammy, talk to me! How’re we doin’?” _

_ “Bad, Dean,” Sam panted. “She’s pretty bad.” _

_ “Damnit, Maggie,” Dean muttered. “We told you to wait.” _

_ “Dean, that’s not helping!” _

_ “No shit, Sammy!” _

_ “Will she make it to the nearest hospital?” Dean demanded, already snatching his phone off the dashboard and searching for the closest emergency room. _

_ “I-I don’t know,” Sam stammered. “She’s burning up. The wound the wendigo gave her is _ _  infected.” _

_ “We need Cas!” Dean shouted desperately, already dialing the angel's number. _

_ “Cas can’t get here!” Sam reminded his brother. Castiel’s wings were damaged beyond repair since the fall. He’d told the Winchesters just days ago that he may never fly again. _

_ Maggie started convulsing. Her head thrashed violently against Sam’s lap. “Dean, she’s not gonna make it!”  _

_ Dean slammed his foot on the accelerator and silently prayed to the car gods that nothing overheated until they’d at least made it to a hospital.  _

_ Sam thought wildly of anyone that could come to their aid. Every angel they’d known besides Cas was dead, and even if they managed to contact one, none of them could fly anymore. Except... _

_ Dean would be furious, but if it saved Maggie, Sam would deal with the repercussions later. He squeezed his eyes shut (although he didn’t exactly know why. Praying just always felt wrong without closed eyes) and sent up a desperate prayer to the only angel left that would hear it.  _

**_Lucifer, we need your help. Maggie’s going to die before we get her to a hospital. We’re on highway 83 in Nebraska headed toward Thedford._ **

_ Sam snapped his eyes open when he heard the soft whoosh! of angel wings. Lucifer appeared beside him in the backseat. Dean spotted the archangel in his rearview mirror and swerved violently with surprise.  _

_ “Jesus-fucking-Christ! Where did he come from?!”  _

_ “I prayed to him!” Sam admitted. _

_ “You prayed to  _ Lucifer?!” _ Dean roared. _

_ “What other options do we have, Dean? I’m not letting Maggie die!” _

_ "Sammy, these deals  _ always _have a price! I don't want his help!"_

_ “Both of you shut up!” Lucifer bellowed. “She’s septic.” _

_ “How the hell do you know that?” Dean demanded. _

_ Maggie let out a moan of pain.  _

_ Lucifer ignored him and addressed Sam instead. “Give her to me.” _

_ Sam didn’t hesitate. He gently lifted Maggie’s head up off his lap and slid her limp figure over to Lucifer. With difficulty, Sam clambered over the bench and into the front seat. Dean kept driving with reckless abandon.  _

_ “You both better shut your eyes,” Lucifer warned.  _

_ “How exactly am I supposed to do that? I’m driving!” Dean pointed out. _

_ “Dean, pull over,” Sam ordered.  _

_ “What? No! If Satan can’t fix her, then the hospital is our next best shot!” _

_ “If we don't get her fever down in ninety seconds, she’s dead,” Lucifer said ominously. “Now stop the damn car and close your fucking eyes!” _

_ Dean glanced at the ETA on his phone’s GPS. They still had another 13 miles to the hospital. Dean didn’t want to be indebted to Lucifer but he didn’t see any other options. If she truly was septic, then even getting her to the hospital might not save her. They couldn’t let Maggie die, especially not so soon after they almost lost Charlie. Dean let out a roar of frustration and fury as he stopped the car on the side of the barren highway.  _

_ Lucifer gathered Maggie onto his lap. He rested one hand on the most serious of her wounds - a deep slash beneath her ribcage. He cradled her head in the crook of his arm and wrapped his other hand around her forehead. The moment he touched her, he felt her core temperature start to drop, but even without the fever, the sepsis would kill her.  _

_ A brilliant bright light shone from the backseat of the Impala. Sam had already wrapped a bandana around his eyes and tucked his head under his arm. Dean glanced back once and saw the outline of magnificent wings extend and fold around both Maggie and the angel.  _

_ “Last warning!” Lucifer pressed. “Close your eyes unless you want to lose them!” _

_ Dean drew his jacket over his face just as the light burned brighter than the sun. An ear-splitting frequency resonated throughout the car, shattering the back windshield. In an instant, both the light and the sound were gone. Sam snatched the bandana off and looked into the backseat.  _

_ Maggie’s eyes fluttered open and she struggled to take in what she saw. She felt like she must still be hallucinating because she was in the backseat of the Impala... with Lucifer. She raised a shaky hand and brushed the stubble on his cheek with her fingertips. _

_ “You’re not guano, Mags, I’m really here,” Lucifer said softly.  _

_ “But how-” Maggie started.  _

_ “Shh, don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine now,” he assured her.  _

_ Maggie turned her head slightly and saw both the Winchesters looking expectantly at her.  _

_ “You scared us to death, you jerk,” Sam said shakily.  _

_ “You’re out of the woods now, kiddo, figuratively and literally,” Dean supplied. “But just to be on the safe side, I think we still better take you to the hospital.” _

_ Maggie sat up with a groan. She reached for her abdomen to feel the wound, but the only thing her fingers found were the tattered strips of cloth from her torn shirt. The wound was completely gone.  _

_ “She’s fine now,” Lucifer assured them. “I healed her wounds and removed the infection from her blood.” _

_ “What about her fever?” Dean questioned.  _

_ “Oh, that was gone the minute I breathed on her,” Lucifer explained.  _

_ “I’m sorry? The minute you did what?” Dean asked, scrunching his eyebrows with disbelief.  _

_ “Detroit,” Sam said. Dean stared at him like he’d gone crazy. “Remember in Detroit? When the temperature dropped like, twenty-five degrees? Remember what he told us?” _

_ Dean’s expression shifted to one of understanding. “You burn cold,” he said to the archangel.  _

_ “Well, I think that’s enough adventure for one day,” Sam said dryly. “I guess we should turn around and head back to the bunker.” _

_ Lucifer hadn’t taken his eyes off Maggie since he’d appeared in the car. He continued to stare at the tattered fabric of her shirt where, just moments before, she had been bleeding to death. He cleared his throat loudly and said, “It's going to take you at least four hours to drive back to the bunker. Why don’t I take her so she can get some rest and not have to take the long way back?” _

_ Sam wanted to argue - that he didn’t trust Lucifer to take Maggie off by himself - but Sam reminded himself that the angel had appeared the moment he’d prayed for him and saved Maggie’s life. "Okay, fine," he agreed. "But stay out of my room this time." _

_ Lucifer shrugged in agreement and tucked his arms beneath Maggie, holding her tightly to him. With the sound of wings unfolding, they vanished from the backseat and reappeared in the library of the bunker.  _

_ Lucifer set her down gently. When her knees buckled and she collapsed into the nearest chair, Lucifer’s dam of indifference broke and he rounded on her.  _

_ “I hate to sound like them, but My-half-fucking-brother, Maggie, what were you trying to prove, going off on your own?!”  _

_ “Oh, don’t start,” Maggie snapped with annoyance. “I’m already going to have to hear it from them when they get back. I don’t need to hear it from you too. I’m not a child.” _

_ “You could have died. You would have if Sam hadn’t called to me.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head at the floor, as if the idea was one he needed to physically force out of his mind. _

_ “Where’ve you been, anyway?” Maggie deflected, hugging her arms to her chest. It was hard to explain and totally backwards, she knew, but once she was no longer in his embrace, she felt colder... more hollow.  _

_ “Held captive by Crowley,” he answered darkly.  _

_ Maggie knew there was more to that story but she also knew well enough not to ask. She sighed and stood up, grabbing the back of the chair to steady herself. Lucifer had healed her wounds, but she was still incredibly weak from lack of food and water for the three days she’d spent in the woods. She closed the distance between them and before he could protest, wrapped her arms around his waist.  _

_ “Look, no lectures, okay?” Her voice was muffled from her face pressed to his chest.  _

_ “Fine, but no more suicide solo monster-killing missions, okay?” Lucifer said into her tangled brown hair.  _

_ She smiled weakly and muttered, “Deal,” as he kissed her forehead and wrapped his wings protectively around her. _

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jack released Maggie’s wrist but remained quiet. Maggie hadn’t quite intended for him to see the whole story, but it was bound to come up sooner or later, she told herself. And she figured that this whole arrangement would work better if she wasn’t keeping any secrets from the kid. 

“Wow,” Jack said, barely above a whisper. 

Maggie managed a tight-lipped smile but didn’t speak. She wanted to let Jack process on his own time without interrupting. 

“I see what you mean about doing something good,” Jack said, “but you weren’t entirely correct earlier.”

Maggie’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“When you said he’d done selfless things. He may have, but the memory you showed me wasn’t an act of selflessness.”

“How do you figure?” Maggie asked, genuinely unsure of where this was going. 

“Because he loves you,” Jack said blatantly. 

“Wh-what now?” Maggie shook her head the way a cartoon character might to clear away confusing thoughts. “How do you come to that conclusion?”

“Well,” Jack reasoned, “he appeared almost instantly after Sam told him where you guys were. Anytime an act is made because of love, there’s some element of selfishness that goes with it. Like all the times Sam or Dean has almost died, or did die, and the other does something desperate to get them back. They do it to avoid the pain of losing someone they love. I think he saved you because he was afraid to see you die. Saving you prevented his own pain and sorrow.” 

Maggie was dumbstruck. Did Lucifer love her? She’d thought it impossible. When she confessed to Charlie how she felt about him, she felt like she’d doomed herself by saying what she felt out loud. This was  _ Lucifer _ , after all. Did he even know how to love anymore? And even if he did, he could never love a human. He'd fallen from grace for his inability to do that.

_ He loves Jack _ , a voice in the back of her mind whispered. 

_ That’s different _ , she told herself. _Jack isn't wholly human... Besides, th_ _ e love a parent has for a child is a completely different animal than romantic love. One might even say it’s instinctual. _

If Lucifer had the capacity to love after everything he’d endured, perhaps he wasn’t the lost cause everyone else assumed him to be. 

“I read that stuff you gave me,” Jack announced, breaking her out of her reverie. He was referring to her own copy of the Bible and some additional notes and texts from her long-ago college course on religious studies. Maggie had been a bit of a pack-rat when it came to her college materials and hadn’t gotten rid of anything. It turned out, some of it had come in handy. 

“So you know why he was cast out of Heaven and why he hated humanity?” Maggie supplied, grateful for a change in topic. Even if the subject was still Lucifer, she was glad they were shying away from the discussion of her own convoluted role in his story. 

Jack nodded slowly. “Because God loved humans more than him and the other archangels?”

“Right. Do you remember what Sam and Dean taught you about the Darkness?” 

“Yeah,” Jack nodded again. “That God gave Lucifer a mark to give him extra power to beat the Darkness and the mark is what corrupted him and made him jealous of God’s creation.”

“I’m impressed, Jack,” Maggie said with an approving nod. “You did read all of the stuff I gave you.”

“Well, I figured that the Bible would only give one side of the story... the side God wanted us to know. Like how Sam’s perception of him is jaded from his experiences... I guess, so is my grandfather's,” Jack reasoned. 

Jack was smarter than most people gave him credit for, Maggie decided. She was at least more confident in her decision to bring him with her. She only hoped Sam didn’t kill her whenever he found out that she was planning to let Jack and his father talk face-to-face.


	4. Chapter 4

A day and a half later, Maggie pulled the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge into the hotel parking lot a block away from the one where Claire had said she’d be staying. She hadn’t lied to the boys... not entirely. Claire **was** in town dealing with a pair of Djinn, but she’d more or less already handled them. Maggie had offered to come and help with the aftermath of the damage the monsters had done. And she may have also casually mentioned to Lucifer when she’d be there and where to find her. 

She shook Jack’s shoulder gently to wake him - he’d fallen asleep just as they’d crossed the state line. She laughed to herself about the repercussions of taking a minor across state lines. If Jack had been wholly human, he’d be less than a year old. But as a Nephilim, he bore the look of a young man around nineteen. 

Jack rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and peered out the window at the hotel. 

“Wow...”

“What?” Maggie asked. 

“This place looks... nice,” Jack said appreciatively. 

“It’s just a Holiday Inn.”

“You know the places Sam and Dean stay at when they’re on a hunt,” Jack reminded her. “I swear, it’s like the seedier it is, the better they like it.”

“Yeah, well, those are usually the cheapest... and least likely to draw attention,” Maggie pointed out. 

“Well, I’m just saying, if this is the kind of place you pick, I’m sticking with you as a hunting partner,” Jack chuckled. 

Maggie retrieved her duffel from the trunk. “C’mon. Let’s get checked in.”

“And then we’ll meet up with Claire?” Jack asked a little too eagerly. 

“Yes,” Maggie said with a knowing smile, “then we’ll meet up with Claire.”

Even though it was “just a Holiday Inn,” Maggie had booked a suite with a bed and a fold-out couch that included a collapsible partition that essentially divided the room into two smaller rooms. Jack whistled softly once Maggie had swiped the key card against the door and flipped the lights on. 

“Yeah, this place is  _ way _ nicer than any place Sam and Dean stay in,” Jack confirmed. 

“I’m not surprised,” Maggie snickered. “You can take the bed if you want it. I’m fine on the couch.”

“No,” Jack said. “I’ll sleep on the pull-out. I’m used to it - the guys always had me sleep on the sofas. They said my ‘young bones’ didn’t need the added comfort of a full mattress.”

“You calling me old, kid?” Maggie quipped with a raise of her eyebrows. 

“Well... older than me,” he answered, shrugging out of his jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. 

“Smart ass,” she muttered with a smirk. 

“So should we call Claire and tell her to meet us here?” Jack asked, already reaching for the phone on the nightstand. 

Maggie swatted his hand away and hastily answered, “No!”

Perplexed, Jack slowly drew his hand back away from the phone. “Ohhhkay. Why not, exactly?”

“Listen, Jack... We will call Claire in a little while and meet her for dinner, but I’d prefer it if she didn’t know where we were staying.”

“Why?”

When Maggie didn’t answer, Jack guessed. “It’s because we aren’t here  _ just _ to help Claire. And whatever else we’re doing here, you don’t want Claire to know about because she might tell Sam and Dean... and you don’t want them to know either?”

Maggie’s continued silence confirmed Jack’s assessment. 

“So, what else are we here to do?” Jack asked. But before Maggie could answer, he pressed on. “Lucifer.” Maggie’s stomach did another backflip. 

“Lucifer knows we’re here, doesn’t he?” Jack speculated. 

“Yes... but Jack, please don’t get upset. Let me explain-”

“I’m not upset,” he replied jovially, plopping down on the couch and crossing his left ankle over his right knee. 

“You’re not?” Maggie asked slowly. 

“No. I think this is a good thing.”

“Really?” She sounded dubious. 

“Sure. I’ve learned that it’s dangerous to develop inaccurate impressions of people before actually meeting them. But Sam and Dean seem determined to do whatever they can to keep him away from me. Castiel is too. And I’m grateful that they want to protect me... but until I talk to Lucifer myself, I’m only going to know what other people tell me.”

Maggie was relieved he wasn’t angry. She’d rolled the dice by not telling him her true intentions and she’d seen Jack lose his temper before. She’d taken a real risk, but it seemed like it was going to pay off. 

“So, you’re really not mad at me?” She said, probably pushing her luck more than she should. 

“Why would I be mad at you? You brought me to see the two people I want... and I guess need... to see the most. Claire and Lucifer,” Jack said with his signature grin that made him look so innocent and young. “Does he know we’re here yet?” 

“No, I told him I’d call him when we got checked in,” she replied, subconsciously reaching for her phone in her back pocket. “And just to be discreet now that he’s human, we’re calling him ‘Luke’ to avoid arousing suspicion.”

Jack bounced the balls of his feet with nervous energy. Maggie knew he was anxious to meet his father, but she could tell he also really wanted to see Claire.  _ Such are the woes of a teenage boy _ , she thought with a smirk. 

“Tell you what,” she began. “Why don’t you go meet up with Claire and grab a bite to eat? I’m not really hungry - I snacked on the road while you were asleep. You and Claire can catch up, you can unwind, and after that, you can head back here and by then he should be here. Sound good?” 

Maggie doubted Jack heard much of anything after she’d mentioned Claire. Jack was nodding emphatically.  _ To be young and in love,  _ she thought wistfully. “Alright,” she said. “You call Claire and have her tell you where to meet her. I’ll call you a cab. And remember, don’t tell her where we’re staying.”


	5. Chapter 5

Twenty minutes later, Jack left to meet Claire at a diner that she claimed had the best cheese fries this side of the Mississippi. Maggie had sent a text as soon as the cab pulled away that read HOLIDAY INN ON JEFFERSON AVE. ROOM 406. BRING FOOD.

She’d not been entirely truthful with Jack when she’d said she wasn’t hungry. She was starved, but she knew Jack had been itching to see Claire and though meeting Lucifer was important to him, a girl always trumped dad in the eyes of a teenage boy. She’d banked on the fact that he would want to spend a little time with Claire before the inevitably awkward and possibly tense meeting with his father. She had her own nervous energy to deal with - she hadn’t seen Lucifer since he’d gotten trapped in the apocalypse world with Mary Winchester.

Her phone binged with an incoming text message. 

**L:** CAN’T DO THIS. WHAT IF HE HATES ME?

Maggie felt a surge of pity as she typed her reply. No one who didn’t see it with their own eyes would ever believe that Satan could be so vulnerable and insecure. 

**M:** HE WON’T BE HERE. I SENT HIM TO GET DINNER WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND. 

**L:** GIRLFRIEND??? 

**M:** I DIDN’T STUTTER.

**L** : OMD. 

Maggie sniggered at her phone screen. Who’d have thought that becoming human would have made him seem so... Well, human? 

She considered taking her hair out of the usual braid and dug around in her duffel for something to wear that didn’t have the staleness of a roadtrip. Then she told herself to stop thinking about shallow, materialistic things and reminded herself why they were there. Jack. It was for Jack to have a low-key first meeting with his father without anyone else’s agenda or motives influencing it. 

She heard movement outside the door and her stomach clenched tightly. She glanced on the nightstand and saw both room keys and thought,  _ Shit, Jack left his key... _  She swallowed thickly when a sharp knock rapped on the door. Maggie pulled the door handle down slowly and once the lock disengaged, the door was pushed open from the outside and in rushed...

“Jack?” Maggie spluttered in bewilderment. “What are you doing back so soon?”

“Well, I realized I forgot my key and the gift I got Claire,” he explained. 

“Ah... and where  _ is _ Claire?” Maggie demanded.  _ Please don’t say in the cab downstairs. _

“At the diner.” Jack’s response was muffled from him digging through his own duffel bag. “I told her I had to come back for something but she should order whatever’s good and I’d be right back.”

_ God bless this kid, _ Maggie thought. She then realized how ironic that thought was, considering  _ whose  _ kid he actually was. 

“Aha! Found it!” Jack said as he withdrew a 365 Day calendar of Grumpy Cat memes. Claire had confessed that the grumpy cat stuffed animal Castiel had given her for her 18th birthday seemed lame at first, but it had come to be a comfort to her when she needed encouragement. It hadn’t taken long for her and Jack’s text conversations to be 80% memes. 

“Okay, gotta go! Cab’s waiting for me!” Jack said cheerfully. 

He was almost to the door when Maggie cleared her throat. 

“Huh?” He said, turning back around. He followed her gaze and saw the room key still sitting on the nightstand. “Oh yeah, gonna need that.”

He slid the card key off the table and tucked it into his jacket pocket. He spun around once more and had taken two steps toward the door when a tall, broad-shouldered figure appeared holding a take-out bag.

Jack took an involuntary step back as Lucifer entered the room. 

“Uhhh, hi, Jack...” Lucifer stammered. “You weren’t supposed to be here.” He turned to address Maggie, an unreadable expression on his face. “He wasn’t supposed to be here?”

Maggie would have laughed if she’d been a spectator. But having been the orchestrator of this train wreck, she simply sighed. “He forgot his girlfriend’s gift and came back.”

“Claire’s not my girlfriend!” Jack immediately objected. “Is she?” He added, sounding more unsure. 

“I don’t know. Look, it doesn’t matter right now,” Maggie rambled. “Christ, this is not how I wanted this to go.” She ran a hand through her hair and chewed on her bottom lip. 

Jack’s phone buzzed. He unlocked the screen and said, “Claire is asking me what’s taking so long? What do I tell her, Maggie?”

“Wait,” Lucifer said suddenly, setting the take-out bag of food on the coffee table. “ _ Maggie?! _ ” 

Both Jack and Maggie stared at him like he’d grown two extra heads. 

“Uhh, yeah,” Maggie nodded, a deep crease of confusion lining her brow. “Did losing your grace give you amnesia? Who’d you think I was?”

“Holy crap, you’re beautiful,” Lucifer blurted out. His mouth hung slightly open in silent shock. Maggie was utterly and thoroughly confused. Jack just looked altogether uncomfortable. 

“Umm, Luke? Is everything okay with you?” Maggie wondered, concern starting to take the place of confusion. She glanced at the mirror that hung on the closet door - she didn’t have any makeup on, her hair was pulled together in her signature side-braid with several loose pieces sticking out at random angles, and she was dressed pretty normally. She had on a pair of well-worn jeans, a long-sleeved flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and square-toed cowboy boots.  _ Nothing special _ , she concluded.

“Huh?” Lucifer shook his head as if he was coming out of a daze. “Yeah, sorry, I’m fine... I just... I wasn’t expecting... that took me by surprise.”

Jack was still ignorant to many things in the world, but he thought he recognized the way his father was looking at Maggie; it was the same expression he knew he had when he looked at Claire. 

“Uh, guys?” Jack broke the silence. Maggie and Lucifer both looked at him. “Claire’s called me twice.”

“I’m not going to tell you what to do, Jack,” Maggie said kindly. “That’s been part of the problem - everyone telling you what’s best for you without letting you decide. If you want to go, go. I’m sure your father will still be here after you finish dinner. But if you want to stay and see Claire tomorrow, I’ll make up something to tell her.”

Jack cast Lucifer a tentative glance. “Do you care if I go?”

Lucifer considered before answering. Finally, he said, “Go see your girl. We’ll talk when you get back.”

Jack nodded, picked up the calendar, and dialed Claire’s number as he left the room. 

Once the door had closed, Maggie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I have to say, I’m impressed.”

“Why?” Lucifer asked quietly. 

“As hard as you fought to find him and what you sacrificed to get back here, you sure let him go mightily easily.”

“He’ll come back,” Lucifer said with a shrug. “And he’ll hopefully be more open-minded since I didn’t force him to stay.”

Maggie regarded him for a moment. “I’m proud of you,” she admitted. “Showing restraint and patience... two things I didn’t think you had before.”

“I hate to say it, but being mortal puts a lot of things into perspective,” Lucifer grimaced. 

“Speaking of mortals, this one is hungry,” Maggie said, her stomach growling as if to reaffirm the fact. She pointed to the take-out on the table. “What’d you bring to eat?”

“Ah yes, eating... just one of the necessary tedious chores of being human,” Lucifer grumbled as he pulled several containers out of the bag. 

“You only say that because you haven’t found a food you truly love yet,” Maggie insisted. He handed her a package of disposable chopsticks, her mouth watering at the sight of the sushi rolls packed tightly into the plastic containers. 

“Sushiiiiiiii,” Maggie trilled happily. She didn’t even bother opening her chopsticks. She plucked a piece up with her fingers and popped it into her mouth. 

“Y’know,” she said with her mouth full, “it’s moments like this that I don’t care if gluttony is a sin.”

Lucifer chuckled weakly but remained unusually quiet as they ate. He let her have the last piece - a particularly spicy roll called the Diablo. She fanned her mouth as the heat from the jalapenos and sriracha made her lips tingle. 

“Okay,” she finally said, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Lucifer mumbled, leaning back on the sofa and kicking his feet up onto the coffee table.

“Well something’s up,” Maggie insisted. “You’re never this quiet... unless you’re plotting something. And I don’t think you’re plotting anything?” She fiddled with the end of her braid for a few seconds as she thought. “Are you upset about Jack wanting to see Claire first?”

“No... this has nothing to do with Jack.”

“So, there is something wrong?” Maggie surmised. 

“No,” Lucifer said again. “It’s just... have you always looked like this?” He shifted his weight onto his hip so he was facing her. 

Maggie flushed and felt her skin tingle with heat that had nothing to do with the sushi. She instantly felt self-conscious, thinking maybe she should have undone her braid and changed into a clean shirt after all. Her hand automatically went to the end of her braid as she tried to look anywhere other than him. 

“I guess? Er... sometimes?” She spluttered, “I mean, I did just drive for fourteen hours and I need to wash my hair but-”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” Lucifer rushed to say. “I mean, I never realized before...” Lucifer trailed off. “Maybe I should explain,” he added.

“That would probably be helpful,” Maggie agreed. 

Lucifer readjusted on the sofa, bringing his left ankle up to rest on his right knee. 

_ Like father, like son _ , Maggie couldn’t help but think. 

“Angels can’t see human features,” Lucifer explained. “Just souls.”

“So, what? We’re just glowing balls of light to you?” 

“More or less. Humanoid-shaped light. Similarly, we can see each other in our true forms, whether we are in a vessel or not,” he told her. “We actually  _ can’t  _ see the human vessel we’re possessing. Just the soul inside it, whether it’s a human soul or an angel.”

“And your true form is huge, right? I remember Cas telling us his true form is the size of the Chrysler Building in New York,” Maggie supplied. 

“It depends on the rank of the angel,” Lucifer said. “Castiel is a seraph, so his form is larger than that of the lesser angels, who are roughly the height of this hotel.”

“Lesser angels?”

“The lower ranks,” he clarified. “The ones who are usually on Earth performing ‘God’s miracles’ and the guardian angels.” He used his fingers to make air quotes around 'God's miracles.'

“Guardian angels are real?” 

Lucifer nodded. “And humans _do not_ make their jobs easy.”

Maggie thought for a moment, then said, “So, what about you?”

“What about me?” He repeated. 

“Archangels. If Cas is really as tall as a skyscraper... What are you, like, as tall as the CN tower in Toronto?”

Lucifer considered but instead of answering directly, he asked, “You’re a book nerd, right?”

“Yeah...” she replied, puzzled. 

“Archangels are about as tall as Barad-dûr,” Lucifer said. 

“Barad-dûr,” Maggie repeated. 

“Yeah... Y’know, the big ass tower in Mount Doom. Sauron’s tower?” 

“I know what it is,” Maggie assured him. “I just... wasn’t expecting a _Lord of the Rings_ reference.” She thought back to a conversation she and Sam had not too long ago about that very subject. Dean had called them nerds, but now she couldn’t wait to shove it back in his face that their geeky conversation had become relevant. Then she remembered that Sam would be furious if he found out she’d even talked to Lucifer... much less taken his son to meet him. 

“If I remember right,” she said, “that tower is over three thousand feet tall.”

Lucifer didn’t say anything, but he tottered his head back and forth a few times and his eyebrows rose as if to say, “sounds about right.”

“So, what does all this have to do with humans being masses of soul light to you guys?” Maggie wondered. 

“Nothing,” Lucifer admitted. “We sorta got off-topic.”

“Sorry,” Maggie said sheepishly. “My fault.”

Lucifer cleared his throat. He seemed to be trying to avoid looking directly at her. “The point I was trying to make is that, as an angel, I could only see your soul. But since I lost my grace and became human...”

Maggie finally understood. Lucifer didn’t recognize her at first because he’d never seen her human face before. He’d only ever seen her soul. 

“You’re beautiful,” he said again. 

Maggie flushed an even deeper scarlet. Her heart was beating incredibly fast and her mouth had gone dry. She tucked a section of her bangs behind her ear, but the thick wavy hair refused to stay in place and immediately fell back over her eye. Lucifer leaned forward, resting one hand against the armrest behind her, the other reaching up and gently pushing the same stubborn piece of hair away from her face. His fingertips brushed the top of her ear as he swept the hair back behind it, causing Maggie to shiver. 

Suddenly, Maggie felt the sensation of being in two places at once - part of her was trapped, mesmerized by what was happening at that moment while the other part of her seemed to look on from above, telling herself she should stop this before it went any further.  _ Almost like an angel and a devil on my shoulder,  _ Maggie thought. But the man in front of her, so very close to her, was both angel and devil and she instantly silenced the warning voices inside her head. 

Maggie brought her arm down in the crook of Lucifer’s elbow, collapsing his arm and causing him to lurch forward. She wove her fingers into his thick blond hair and pulled him closer to her. She pressed her mouth to his, allowing his tongue to part her lips. She was mildly surprised, and a little disappointed, when his kiss didn’t deliver the icy shock she’d come to expect, but she reminded herself that he was just as every bit of human now as she was.  

He slid an arm between her back and the sofa, holding her tightly. He moved to kiss her neck, his lips hot against her own flushed skin. When he nipped his teeth against her neck, she let out a tiny moan of longing. 

“Luc-” she murmured before correcting herself. “Luke.”

“No,” he growled, twisting her braid around in his loose hand and giving it a soft tug. “Say my name,” he commanded. “My  _ real _ name.”

Maggie looked up at him, capturing his gaze. “Lucifer,” she breathed. 

He groaned with desire before closing his mouth over hers once more. He broke away for the briefest of moments, looking at Jack’s duffel between the sofa and coffee table, seeming to consider something. Lucifer wrapped his arms around her again, picked her up, and relocated her to the bed. 

She’d made love to him before, but never like this. Before, he’d been an archangel - a creature of primordial creation. He’d had to hold back much of his power to avoid hurting her unintentionally. But now, he was human. His passion was unbridled. Unrestrained. It was exhilarating.  

Maggie knew she’d imagined it but she could have sworn that for a fraction of a second, when she’d uttered his name, his eyes had glowed crimson. 

In many ways, she secretly wished he would remain human. It would uncomplicate so many things. But she knew, just as she’d known he would stop at nothing to find his son, that he would never stop trying to regain his grace. For a man who has never had wings does not know what it is to fly. But a fallen angel with broken wings will never stop yearning for that which he has lost. She was resigned to accept and love him, no matter what form he held... even if that form was the devil. 

If loving him was an unforgivable sin, then her soul be damned.


	6. Chapter 6

Lucifer woke with a start, his stomach growling obnoxiously. 

_ Seriously?  _ He thought.  _ If I ever see Dad again, I’m asking him why he made it so these humans have to eat so damn much just to stay alive.  _

The heavy curtains were drawn over the windows, so he wasn’t able to tell if the sun had risen yet or not, but he suspected not. He hadn’t been human very long, but he still felt like they hadn’t slept long enough for it to be dawn yet. 

Maggie was still asleep, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder and her arm draped over his stomach. He craned his neck to look over her at the clock on the nightstand. 

4:17.

He settled his head back down on the pillow and tried to go back to sleep, but the growling in his stomach persisted. He sighed quietly to himself. As he slowly slid out from under Maggie’s arm so as not to wake her, he thought if he was getting up, he might as well wake Jack up and go find some 24-hour diner that had waffles. Being human had its drawbacks, but waffles were not one of them. 

Lucifer retrieved his jeans from the floor and pulled them on, along with his shirt. He quietly made his way around the partition only to find the sofa bed unmade and empty. Jack’s duffel bag was still in the same spot on the floor. He peered around to the bathroom door - open and the light was off. 

Panic seized him as he hurried to the door, snatched it open, and glanced down both ends of the hallway. Totally empty. He hurried back over to Maggie and shook her roughly. 

“Wha-?  Whassamatter?” Maggie said drowsily. 

“Jack’s not here!”

Maggie sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What? But it’s the middle of the night. Surely he should be back by now.”

“I’m telling you, he’s not here!”

“We’ll find him,” she promised, already reaching for her phone. The screen came to life, showing two missed calls at 11:38 PM and 12:49 AM. She also saw there was a text message at 1:02 AM. 

**J:** TRIED CALLING. WATCHING SOME MOVIE WITH CLAIRE CALLED DIE HARD. 

"He’s still at Claire’s,” Maggie said after reading the text. 

Lucifer snatched the phone from her hand, glanced at it, and shoved it back at her. “That was over three hours ago.”

“It’s a long movie?” Maggie supplied weakly. “Look, if he’s not back by dawn, we’ll go to Claire’s motel.”

As soon as she suggested it, the electronic lock of the door clicked. Maggie glanced to the floor, where her jeans and flannel shirt lay in a crumpled pile, and to the nightstand at her 1911. She decided on protection over vanity and reached for the gun as the door creaked open. When Jack’s innocent face peeked through, she wished she’d opted for modesty. She hastily set the gun back down and drew the covers up a little higher to hide the fact that she was only wearing a bra and underwear. 

As soon as Jack entered the room, Lucifer breathed a heavy sigh of relief and instinctively grabbed Jack’s wrist, pulling him in for a gruff, tight hug. He let go quickly and took a few steps back after he remembered that he and his son hadn’t said more than a few words to one another. 

He wanted to scold the boy for coming back so late but he also wanted Jack to like him, and he doubted that reprimanding him on their first meeting would be a good start. 

Maggie had taken advantage of Jack’s momentary distraction and slid out of bed, retrieved a hotel bathrobe, and slipped it on. She tied the sash tightly and approached Jack. 

“Jack, do you have  _ any _ idea what time it is?!” She said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“Whoa, chill,” Jack said, holding his hands up defensively. 

“Don’t you tell me to chill,” Maggie snapped back. “Sam and Dean would have  _ killed _ me if something had happened to you.”

_ So much for not reprimanding him _ , Lucifer thought with mild amusement. He did think it odd that she was being hard on him when she’d been the one who suggested waiting until dawn to go look for him. He caught her eye and she gave him a significant look. 

“I tried calling,” Jack reminded her. “I texted you where I was.”

“Yeah, because Claire is  _ so _ responsible,” Maggie shot. 

“All we did was watch a movie!” Jack argued. “It’s not like we went on a hunt.”

“C’mon, Mags, go easy on him,” Lucifer cajoled. He looked at Jack and said, “What movie?”

_ “ Die Hard _ _,”_ Jack answered. 

“The first one?”

“Yeah...”

Lucifer nodded appreciatively. “That’s the best one.”

“You’ve seen  _ Die Hard _ ?” Jack asked incredulously. 

Lucifer shrugged. “My vessel has, so I have.”

“That’s... cool,” Jack said. 

Maggie rolled her eyes and made a sound of quiet disgust, but Lucifer caught the wink and tiny little smirk she gave him. 

The pair started trading off lines and scenes from the movie. Maggie yawned obnoxiously and said, “Well, as titillating as a play-by-play of a movie I’ve seen dozens of times may be, I’m going back to bed.”

“Okay,” Jack and Lucifer said simultaneously. 

_ This is the best we could have hoped for. Jack’s actually talking to him!  _ She waited until she’d gotten to the other side of the partition to break out into a wide grin.

~*~*~*~*~*~

She woke well after dawn to the smell of... bacon?

She got out of bed and saw a styrofoam take out tray laden with bacon, eggs, grits, and a waffle.  _ What was it with angels and waffles, _ she wondered. 

She poked her head around the partition, but no one was there. She heard muffled voices behind her and suddenly remembered the room had a balcony. She took a piece of bacon from the tray and took a bite as she opened the sliding glass door behind the floor-length curtains. 

Both men turned in her direction when the door opened. Jack waved happily at her and turned his attention back to his father. 

“No, but see, what makes it funny,” Jack said, “is that when Darth Vader tells Princess Leia to hand over the data that was transmitted to them and she’s like ‘what data? We’re on a diplomatic mission...’ but the Empire _literally_ just followed Leia’s ship from Scarif like, five minutes before that.”

Maggie chuckled as she finished the bacon. “I don’t care what you say, Jack,  _ Empire _ is still the best one,” she said, dropping down into the empty chair beside Lucifer, who idly reached for her hand. He loosely entwined her fingers between his and brought her hand to his mouth with a light kiss. 

Maggie had never seen him so... domestic. Maybe it was from losing his grace and realizing he was every bit of human as the rest of them - which meant he could die or be hurt just as easily. But something in the back of her mind told her that wasn’t it. He’d changed more in the last twenty-four hours than he had since becoming human. 

It was Jack. It had to be. She wondered if things would have gone differently had Lucifer still been an angel the first time he and Jack met.  _ Probably so _ , she told herself, thinking that Lucifer would have used his angel powers to try and impress Jack. It was probably better that they did meet with Lucifer sans grace. 

“Noooo,” Jack drawled. _“_ _ New Hope _ is the best. You’re never gonna change my mind.”

“Sorry, kid,” Lucifer said with a shrug, “Mags is right on this one.  _ Empire  _ tells the best story.”

“But there wouldn’t even be a story to tell without  _ New Hope _ !”

“Let’s just all agree that the original trilogy is better than the prequels,” Maggie suggested. 

“Oh, definitely,” Lucifer said. 

“Without question,” added Jack. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned deeply. 

“Did you sleep at all?” Maggie asked.

Jack shook his head. 

“Why don’t you go try and catch a few hours sleep and then we’ll canvas the neighborhoods with Claire and make sure all the loose ends from her djinn hunt are tied up?”

Jack nodded in agreement and rose from his chair. He took his phone from his back pocket, not even bothering to check it, and set it on the dresser inside the room before collapsing onto the sofa. Maggie wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d been asleep before his head hit the pillow. 

Jack’s phone buzzed softly, but he was already asleep and Maggie couldn’t hear it from outside, so no one saw the text from Claire when it came through. 

JACK! CALL ME. I THINK I MESSED UP. SAM AND DEAN ARE ON THEIR WAY HERE! 


	7. Chapter 7

Maggie carried her tray of food outside and closed the balcony door to ensure Jack got the sleep he needed. She’d barely set it down when Lucifer abruptly snatched her arm and pulled her close to him. He held her tightly and murmured into her hair, “Thank you.”

When he pulled away, Maggie saw a real, genuine smile. “You two seem to be getting along,” she observed. 

“My kid is awesome!” He exclaimed. "He loves classic _Star Wars_ and can put away some food. Kid ate four waffles!" 

His face fell suddenly. “And I had nothing to do with it,” he added dejectedly. 

“Well... you’re making up for lost time now,” Maggie said gently. 

He embraced her again, resting his chin lightly on her head. He remembered when he first entered Nick’s vessel, there was an overwhelming feeling of loss and loneliness. It hadn’t taken long to quiet Nick’s mind, but Lucifer occasionally thought back on the state Nick was in when he said yes. He'd been mourning the loss of his wife and infant child. Lucifer had initially mocked his vessel’s despondent attitude but he thought now that he finally understood. 

Jack was the most important thing in all of creation to him and he cared deeply for Maggie. He’d been immeasurably lonely when he’d lost his grace and returned to Earth. Having Maggie and then finding his son brought him more joy than he’d had since he was cast out of Heaven. To lose them would destroy him. 

With Maggie still wrapped tightly in his embrace, he glanced into the hotel room and saw Jack sleeping on the sofa. If regaining his grace meant losing all of this, he didn’t want it back. 

“Mags?” 

“Hmm?” She drew back so that she could look up at him. 

“I lo-”

A heavy pounding on the door interrupted him. Maggie jumped back as Lucifer snatched the handle of the sliding glass door.

“Wait!” Maggie ordered.  “You better stay out here until we figure out who it is.”

“Whoever it is, they sound pissed.”

In the middle of opening the balcony door, Maggie realized that Jack was awake and going to answer the door. He peered through the peephole and reached for the door handle. 

“Jack, wait!” Maggie called, but she was too late. The moment the door lock was disengaged, Sam and Dean Winchester burst into the room. 

Dean immediately zeroed in on Lucifer, still on the balcony. “What the fuck is he doing here?!”

“What are  _ you _ doing here!?” Maggie demanded just as forcefully. 

“I called Claire to ask how the hunt was going and if you guys needed any help,” Sam said. 

“But Claire,” Dean interjected, “told Sammy that she finished off the djinn two days ago. So we know you lied to us about coming here to help her.” His hand rested on the gun tucked into his waistband. 

“Claire said she told you she’d already handled it,” Sam said to Maggie. “But she said you insisted on coming to help her ‘tie up loose ends.’”

“So, we figured you might have been coming to hunt something else and hauled ass here,” Dean finished. 

“No,  _ you _ thought they were hunting something else,” Sam corrected. “I thought it had something to do with Lucifer since she was so insistent on taking Jack... and I was right.”

“Just let me explain,” Maggie argued. 

“No. We’re gonna do what we should have done as soon as he came back from Apocalypse World,” Dean said, pointing to Lucifer. “We’re gonna put a bullet between his eyes and be done with this whole mess.” He drew the pistol from his waistband. 

“No!” Jack cried, shoving past Dean to stand between him and Lucifer. 

“Jack, move. I’m not telling you twice.”

“Dean, I get it. You’re pissed,” Maggie said shakily. “But be pissed at me. Jack had nothing to do with it.” She slowly backed up until she was standing next to Jack, with Lucifer behind them.

“Maggie, come on,” Sam coaxed. “It’s  _ Lucifer. _ ”

“I’m fully aware,” Maggie said defiantly. “And I’m not going to let you kill him.”

Dean lowered the gun slightly, not comfortable with the idea of aiming at either Jack or Maggie. His eyes followed the would-be trajectory and landed on the pile of clothes on the floor. Dean looked from the clothes to Maggie, still in the bathrobe. Dean looked back and forth a few more times and let out a disgusted growl. 

“Seriously, Maggie? You do realize he’s the actual devil, right?” 

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” she snapped. 

“No, but it sure would be nice considering you lied to us,” Sam retorted. 

“Explanation when we get back to the bunker,” Dean insisted. “It's warded and we can control who comes and who goes.” He withdrew a pair of handcuffs from his jacket pocket. 

“Enochian handcuffs?” Lucifer said, speaking for the first time since the Winchesters’ arrival. “Isn’t that a bit overkill at this point?”

“Well, I feel pretty certain they’ll hold you this time,” Dean sneered as he snapped them over Lucifer’s wrists roughly. “Okay, Sammy, you take Jack and Maggie in the GTO and I’ll follow behind with  _ him. _ ”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Jack, grab your stuff. Let’s go.”

Jack looked at Maggie expectantly, but she saw no other options. “Just do it,” she said, every word soaked with defeat. 

Maggie snatched her clothes off the floor and retreated to the bathroom to change. Jack picked up his still-packed duffel bag and his phone. He read the text from Claire and typed back a reply. 

**J:** TOO LATE. THEY’RE HERE. 

Maggie emerged from the bathroom and silently shoved the rest of her things haphazardly into her own duffel. She avoided looking at Lucifer - she couldn’t bear the look of disappointment he was bound to have for her. This entire arrangement had been her idea.

“Alright, I’m gonna go down to the front desk and check out,” Dean said. “Can you handle them?”

“We’re not some hellspawn monsters you kill, Dean!” Maggie cried. “We’re your family!”

“Which is why this sucks as much as it does,” Dean retorted as he strode into the hallway. 

Once he was gone, Sam surveyed the room to make sure all personal effects were collected. He gave a curt nod and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

Maggie pulled her jacket out of her duffel and draped it over the handcuffs binding Lucifer. 

Sam raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Well, you’re not in your fed suit, so if you walk three people out through the lobby, one in handcuffs, it’s going to raise a lot of questions, don’t you think?” She pointed out. 

She tried to adjust the jacket quickly, making sure it was entirely covering the cuffs. Lucifer tried to reach for her but the cuffs severely limited his movement. He managed to rest a hand on her arm and she finally looked up at him. 

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed silently. 

He squeezed her arm and let go as the group left the hotel room and trudged down the hall toward the elevator. 

Dean met them in the parking lot. The Impala was parked next to the GTO and on the other side of Maggie’s car was an older, beat up Subaru Outback. 

“Claire?” Sam said in surprise. 

“How did you know where we were?” Jack wondered. “I never told her where we were staying," he added to Maggie.

“The text you sent me was geotagged,” Claire explained. “Jack, I’m sorry if I caused problems for you. Sam called me before you got here.”

“I know, Claire,” Jack said. “I’m not mad at you.”

“So, that’s Claire?” Lucifer said to Maggie. 

Dean roughly shoved Lucifer into the back seat of the Impala. “No social hour for you, Satan.”

Claire raised an eyebrow questioningly. 

“Yeah umm... Remember last night when I told you my dad was here?”

“Sure,” Claire said indifferently. 

Jack’s eyes wandered over to the Impala. Claire processed for a moment and said, “Wait, for real?"

Jack nodded. 

"You're not bullshitting me?" She asked. 

Jack shook his head. 

Claire whistled appreciatively. "That’s pretty fucking cool, Jack.”

“Wait, cool?” Sam repeated. 

“Hell yeah,” Claire answered. “I mean, I knew Jack’s dad was an angel but not like,  _ the  _ angel.”

"He's not  _'the_ angel'... he's freaking Satan!" Dean chided. 

"Dean, literally everything about the way we live is because of him. Like him or not, he's famous," Claire pointed out.

“Why aren’t you freaked out about this?” Dean demanded. 

“Dude, for all rights and purposes,  _ my _ dad is an angel.” 

“No, your dad is in Heaven,” Dean argued. “Cas is-”

“The closest thing to a dad I’ve had since he possessed my father,” Claire finished. “I called him a lot after my mom died. For advice or just... someone to talk to.”

“Wait, why didn’t we know about that?” Dean pressed. 

“Because... you didn’t have to?” Claire responded slowly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You don’t have to know every single last thing about everyone, you know.”

Sam cleared his throat. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road. Claire, you can come along but you’re driving your own car.”

“I’ll pass,” she said. “There’s enough tension here without adding me to the mix. Besides, I told Jody I’d head back to Sioux Falls when I was done with this hunt.”

Claire stood awkwardly in front of Jack for a moment before putting her hands on his shoulders, standing on tip-toe, and giving him a brief kiss. She waved stiffly at Maggie, Sam, and Dean, as she slid into the driver’s seat of her car and drove away. 

Maggie sighed and got into the front seat of the GTO. 

“Can I ride with Dean?” Jack asked. 

“No,” Sam and Dean replied together. 

Jack got into the car with Sam, Dean got in the driver’s seat of his own car. No one said anything as the cars pulled out of the parking lot.


	8. Chapter 8

Once they’d gotten on the highway, Maggie broke the silence.

“How did you guys even know where we were? I was careful. I didn’t use any of my known aliases and I booked the room online with a credit card I’d gotten that morning.”

“Well,” Sam said, “we knew you were in the same town as Claire. And we knew that you hate those divey motels Dean picks, so we figured you’d be at some chain hotel. From there, it was a matter of driving around from hotel to hotel until we found the GTO. It's not a very big town, Maggie.”

“But how did you find out what room we were in?” Maggie wondered. “Did you go banging on every single door?”

“No, I saw you on the balcony from the parking lot.”

“Goddamnit,” Maggie muttered.

“How could you do this, Maggie?”

“Because, Sam, Jack has a right to know his father,” she said. “And keeping him locked up in the bunker twenty-four seven wasn’t right. I understand he has power he hasn’t fully learned how to use yet, but he’s come so far from where he started. And I, for one, am proud of him.”

She turned around to give Jack a small smile of encouragement and saw he was asleep.

“But, Maggie... it’s _Lucifer,_ ” Sam insisted.

“That’s part of the problem, Sam... You can’t think of Lucifer without thinking of the cage. So your opinion is tainted.”

“Tainted?” Sam repeated. “Do you even know what happened in the cage?”

“I know enough,” Maggie said. “But I also know that Lucifer isn’t the same as he was in the cage. I don't expect you to become buddies with him after what you went through. I just want you to be able to acknowledge that he’s changed... and I think a huge part of that has to do with Jack."

"How do you figure?" Sam sounded doubtful.

"Before, Lucifer wanted to annihilate everything on Earth just to spite God... To 'break his toys' just because he could," Maggie explained. "But now, he honestly doesn’t care about any of it. The only violence you’d see from him now is anything that tried to hurt Jack.”

“Or you, apparently.”

“Me?” Maggie scoffed. She jerked her head around to look in the backseat again. Jack was still asleep.

“Maggie, don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I don't know exactly what's going on between you and him, but  _something_ is going on."

Maggie felt a pounding between her eyes and knew a tension headache was rapidly approaching.

“Sam... I’m telling you, he’s different.”

“Don’t you think your opinion of this is now also... tainted?” Sam retorted.

“I don’t know... maybe it is,” she admitted quietly.

~*~**~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, Dean followed behind Sam in stony silence. After nearly two hours of nothing but road noise, Lucifer groaned and said, “Come on man, at least turn on the radio.”

“Will it keep you from talking to me?” Dean grumbled.

“No, but your overall brooding attitude will.”

Dean flipped on the radio to a classic rock channel only to be greeted with a Van Halen song he decided he’d never like to hear again.

 _Runnin’ with the devil_ _  
_ _God damn it lady, you know I ain’t lyin’ to ya_  
 _Runnin' with the devil_

Dean saw Lucifer bobbing his head to the music from his rearview mirror and switched off the radio.

“C’mon man!” Lucifer whined. “That was, quite literally, my jam.”

“How about just shut up before I jam this angel blade through your ribcage?” Dean countered.

“Silly Dean!” Lucifer patronized. “A standard ole’ angel blade can’t hurt me.”

“Maybe it couldn’t when you were powered up... but you bleed red now, same as me. I think you keep forgetting you can die.”

Lucifer’s mouth thinned to a tight line. He had indeed forgotten, but he’d never admit it.

“And while we’re on that subject,” Dean continued, “I think now’s a good time to make it clear that if you ever lay another finger on Maggie, I’ll show you just how easily you can bleed.”

“What exactly are you so bent out of shape about?” Lucifer wondered. “That she doesn’t have the hots for you?”

Dean grimaced. “No way, man. She’s like a little sister.”

“Ohhh, so this is a protective big brother thing?”

Dean’s silence all but confirmed Lucifer’s assumption. “I should have guessed that. It's the role you play best, Dean. Protecting your younger siblings from mean old Lucifer. It’s endearing, I guess,” the fallen angel continued, “but a bit archaic. I mean, Maggie’s a big girl. She can do what she wants.”

“And so can you, right? Oh, I get it...” Dean snarled. “After knocking up Kelly Kline, you got a taste for doin’ the dirty. Hell, who wouldn’t? But why Maggie? I’m sure any number of chicks would be down for that, so long as you didn’t just casually go, ‘oh, by the way, I’m Satan.’”

“Sorry, did you just insinuate that Maggie is some kind of...” Lucifer trailed off, unwilling to even utter it aloud.

“Fuck buddy?” Dean finished for him. He glanced at Lucifer through the rearview mirror - his fists were balled and the handcuffs were digging into his wrists. He unballed one fist to snap his fingers. Nothing happened. _Right_ , he remembered. _Human._

Not for the first time, Dean was glad that Lucifer had lost his power and become human. Without Chuck around to counter Lucifer’s itchy trigger finger that could literally disintegrate people, Dean was pretty sure he’d have been dust at least a few times by now.

“Well, I mean, what else could she be?” Dean wondered. “It’s not like you have feelings for her.”

Something churned in Lucifer’s stomach that had nothing to do with hunger or digestion. Thinking about her always made his pulse quicken (now that he had a pulse). He thought about how soft her skin was and how the corner of her eyes formed tiny creases when she smiled. It was true he hadn’t thought anything like that when he’d been with Kelly, but truthfully, he’d felt nothing for her. His only concern for her safety had been to ensure his son was safely carried into the world. He would admit he used her... but he’d also admit that she was the one who’d given him the idea to have a child in the first place. He hadn’t cared if she had felt happy, scared, betrayed - he hadn’t cared about her in the least. She had been nothing more than a conduit for his offspring. 

But with Maggie... he wished he had his grace back when he thought of anyone hurting her. If anyone did her harm, he’d make sure they’d feel the wrath of Heaven _and_ Hell. He knew she could look after herself, but the desire to _want_ to protect someone was entirely new to him.

Dean watched Lucifer for as long as he could before having to glance back at the road. “Come on, dude, don’t try to con a con man.”

Lucifer shrugged. “You don’t have to believe me. I mean, given our history, I doubt you ever would... but Jack and Maggie are the only two people in this world that I give a damn about.”

“Jack, I won’t argue,” Dean said. “But Maggie? Gimmie a break.”

“I love her,” Lucifer said automatically.

An ear-splitting clap of thunder made them both jump. Dean thought the ground shook slightly, but driving down the highway, it was hard to tell. He glanced upward through the Impala's windshield, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. 

“Love her? Dude, you don’t even know her,” Dean protested.

“Try me.”

“Okay, fine,” Dean said. “I’ll bite. You think you know her so well... What’s her favorite color?”

“Purple,” Lucifer answered immediately.

“Favorite food?”

“Sushi.”

“Favorite movie?”

“General or Star Wars?” Lucifer countered.

"Both.”

"General: _Labyrinth._ Star Wars: _Empire Strikes Back_.”

Dean furrowed his brow. He hadn’t expected Lucifer to know the answer to every question he threw at him and especially not without even having to think about it.

Lucifer tried to cross his arms across his chest but the handcuffs made that impossible. So he brought his left ankle up to rest on his right knee and rested his hands loosely on his knee.  

“Okay, hotshot,” Dean said with a growl. “When’s her birthday?”

“September first.”

“What kind of creamer does she prefer in her coffee?”

“Trick question,” Lucifer answered confidently. “She doesn't use creamer. She drinks her coffee black.”

Dean had to admit he was impressed. He knew all these things about Maggie because she’d been living in the bunker for over a year and he’d come to regard her as a younger sister, much like Charlie.

“What else do you want to know, Dean?” Lucifer asked with a slight edge to his voice. Dean’s tirade of questions was wearing thin. “That she bites her lip when she’s anxious and plays with the tail of her braid when she’s trying to remember something? Or that she sings show tunes but only when she’s drunk on tequila? Or maybe that she hates flowers of any kind because they die and what kind of sentiment is that, honestly? Or that she-”

“Okay you made your point,” Dean cut him off. “Just one last thing...”

“Hit me, Trebek.”

“What’s her middle name?”

Lucifer had to think for a moment. His eyes shifted from left to right as he tried to recall if it had ever come up. He remembered teasing her once when he was still possessing Castiel and she’d set a tumbler on the table with her initials engraved into it. He’d teased her about not seeming like the monogrammed hand towel type.

The car slowed to a stop at an empty rest area. Dean got out of the car and came around to open the backseat.

“Abigail,” he answered quietly, staring at a stain on the carpeted floor of the car. “Her middle name is Abigail.”

Lucifer slid out of the car and stood up. Dean clapped him on the shoulder; Lucifer instinctively recoiled. “Well, color me impressed,” Dean announced. “I guess you do know our girl just as well as we do.”

 _Oh, I know her_ much _better than you do, Winchester. That I bet I can guarantee._


	9. Chapter 9

Back at the bunker, Sam was surprised to find Cas there waiting for them.

“Is it true?” He pestered before Sam had even come down the stairs. “Did you capture Lucifer?”

“Cas, how did you even know about that?” Sam wondered.

“Claire called me,” Cas said simply. “I looked for Jack, but he wasn’t in his room. You didn’t take him with you, did you?”

Sam slunk into the nearest chair and rubbed his forehead roughly. “It’s a long story, Cas. No, we didn’t take Jack with us. We actually, uh... went to get Jack.”

Castiel’s brow furrowed. “Where was he?”

“In Indiana,” Sam explained. “With Lucifer.”

_“ What?!”_

“Maggie took Jack to Indiana to meet Lucifer.”

“Jack shouldn’t be anywhere near Lucifer!” Cas said furiously.

“Cas, listen, I know...” Sam said calmly. “But if we’d kept him locked up forever, Jack would have found a way. You can only subdue a person for so long.”

“I’m not following...”

“It’s like... if a parent is super strict with their kid and then the kid goes off to college and ends up on Girls Gone Wild or something.”

“You think Jack is going to audition for Girls Gone Wild?” Cas said with a deep crease in his brow.

“What? No...” Sam said. “I’m just saying, it’s kinda better that Jack met Lucifer in a somewhat controlled environment rather than him sneaking out and finding him on his own. Trust me, I was just as pissed as you were at first. But the drive back from Indiana let me think on it a while.”

Just then, Dean entered from the hallway.

“Hey, Cas. Sam fill you in?”

“Just did,” Sam confirmed. “Where’s Lucifer?”

“Dungeon,” Dean replied. “Maggie and Jack?”

“Jack is in his room. Maggie, not sure.”

“I’m going to go talk to Jack,” Castiel announced and promptly marched down the hall.

Dean twisted the top off a beer and sat down across from Sam. “Well, now that that crisis has been handled, I guess we better get back to work on figuring out what to do about Mom and Michael. Any ideas? Cuz I got nothin’.”

“I have an idea,” a booming voice said, “but you’re probably not going to like it.”

Dean and Sam looked wildly around. Dean saw him first, standing at the top of the stairs by the entryway door.

_“ Chuck!?”_

Chuck came down the stairs and laughed. “Hi, guys.”

“What are you even doing here?” Sam asked. “I thought you and Amara were having a celestial sabbatical or something?”

“We were,” Chuck replied. “But something happened and I had to see it for myself.”

Dean whistled. “Now, I’m worried. What could be so monumental that God himself would come home early from vacation?”

“Lucifer,” Chuck said. “He’s here?”

“Uh, yeah,” Sam said, perplexed. “Well, we had trapped him in some alternate timeline where Michael won and it was anarchy... but he got out. And lost his grace.”

“I know,” Chuck said. “I may not be around, but I still know everything that happens.”

“Okay, so what’s this master plan?” Dean asked.

Chuck held up his hand. “First, Lucifer.”

“Can’t that wait?” Sam asked.

“No,” Chuck insisted. “It requires him.”

Dean growled slightly. “Y’know, for being your favorite, he sure is a pain in the ass.” He took a long pull from the bottle and set it down roughly before leaving to retrieve Lucifer.

A few minutes later, Dean returned with a still-handcuffed Lucifer in tow. Chuck flicked his pointer finger and the cuffs fell to the floor. Lucifer’s head snapped up.

“Oh, great,” he grumbled. "You guys call Dad because I was misbehaving on the playground?"

Dean kicked out one of the chairs and motioned for Lucifer to sit. Chuck sat across from him and folded his hands together, elbows resting against the table. Lucifer stared at the assortment of initials and names carved into the table’s surface.

 _D.W._ _  
_ _S.W.  
_ _Cas  
_ _M.R._ _  
_ _J.K._ _  
_ _M.W.  
C.B.  
_ _C.N._

“By the way, congrats, you’re a grandfather,” Lucifer said in an expressionless voice. 

“I know,” Chuck said. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you?” He dug a fingernail into one of the carved letters and picked at it.

“Because of what you said. To Dean in the Impala.”

“And what did I say?” Lucifer goaded, his hooded eyes filled with contempt. 

Sam looked sharply at Dean, who shrugged. He tried to think if there was anything specifically important they talked about.

“What did he say to you?” Sam whispered.

“I don’t know,” Dean hissed back. “Didn’t talk much, to be honest. Hell, mostly talked about...” he trailed off.

“What? About what?”

“I think you know,” Chuck said to his son.

Lucifer glanced down at the table and noticed which initials he’d been picking at. _M.R._ He sighed. “Maggie.”

Sam cast Dean a questioning look.

“The thunder, the tremors? That was you, wasn’t it?” Dean guessed, glancing at Chuck.

Chuck nodded and then turned his attention back to Lucifer. “You told Dean you love her."

“I do,” Lucifer murmured, barely above a whisper.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look. “Dude, he really said that to you?” Sam marveled.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think he was serious!” Dean hissed back.

“Well, God’s here. I’d say that’s as serious as it gets.”

“Shh!” Dean ordered. “Shit that’s goin’ down right now might end up another chapter in the freaking Bible!”

“More than me?” Chuck asked.

“‘Scuse me?” Lucifer said, frowning slightly.

“Do you love her more than you love me?” Chuck tilted his head as he waited for an answer.

Lucifer didn’t reply right away. Finally, he said, “If you’d asked me that an eon ago, I’d have said it wasn’t possible.”

“And now?” Chuck pressed.

Lucifer thought of the thousands of years he spent in the cage, alone. Hating God for forsaking him and forsaking his love for the love of his creation. At times, his loneliness and feelings of betrayal were almost palpable. When he’d been released from the cage, he’d observed them - these fragile broken things that his father was so fond of. Occasionally, he would peruse his vessel’s memories and try to find out what made them tick.  It was his brother Gabriel’s words that truly made him think about humanity. "Damn right, they're flawed," his brother had said to him. "But a lot of them try... To do better, to forgive." If there was one thing he regretted, it was killing Gabriel. 

Lucifer thought of the few years he spent in the cage with Michael. His older brother had not fared well in the cage. Lucifer, on the other hand, had spent so much time in it that he wasn’t fazed by it. He’d gotten out once, which meant he could do it again.

He thought about how much had changed since he lost his grace - how much _he_ had changed. Mostly about how very wrong he’d been about a lot of things. And of course, he thought about Maggie. Maggie, who made no attempt to change him and accepted him for who he was, even though he was flawed.

“And now,” Lucifer repeated, “I absolutely love her more than you.”

“Amazing,” Chuck breathed.

Sam and Dean sat shell-shocked, both at a loss for words.

Chuck's eyes brimmed with tears as he reached across the table and patted Lucifer’s hand lightly. “I’m so proud of you, son.” 

Lucifer instinctively jerked his hand away. He was still so unused to any gestures of kindness or affection that whenever he received one, he didn't know how to act. “You are,” he said pointedly, “the weirdest dad in the entire cosmos.”

“Nah, I think Zeus has me beat,” Chuck said with a wink and a hoarse chuckle.

Dean sat up a little straighter. “Wait, Zeus? Like, lightning bolt, sleeps-with-everything-that-moves Zeus?!”

Chuck suddenly seemed to remember the Winchesters were in the room. “Oh! And Dean!” He clapped the eldest brother on the back. “I suppose I have to thank you for your part in this.”

“M-my part?” Dean faltered.

“Sure. By removing the Mark, and subsequently setting Amara free, you broke the line of it having to be passed on,” Chuck explained. “In doing so, the Mark’s corruption on all those who bore it was significantly lessened.”

Dean subconsciously gripped his right forearm with his left hand. The Mark had been gone for over a year, but he still had phantom pains of it burning into his flesh from time to time. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Lucifer grip his own arm in a similar gesture.

“I can never escape the role I played in stoking my son's rage and hardening his heart,” Chuck said woefully. “And if we’re being honest, I would do it all again if it meant locking Amara away so that creation could bloom. Because after all these many millennia, my son has learned that he can love humanity.”

Sam exhaled deeply and simply said, “Wow.”

“Speaking of,” Chuck continued. “Where is this miracle girl?”

“Ah, I think she’s in her room,” Sam said, louder than necessary. ‘I’ll go get her.”

Sam deliberately took a longer than necessary route to Maggie’s room, and when he knocked on the door, she opened it slightly out of breath.

“How much did you hear?” He asked, fixing her with a deadpan stare. 

Maggie considered lying, but she knew Sam was too smart for that. He’d seen her lurking at the top of the stairs from the moment Dean had brought Lucifer into the study.

“All of it,” she admitted.

"A little old for eavesdropping, aren't you?" He chided. 

"Probably," she shrugged.

"Well, come on... God wants to meet you.”

Maggie let out a nervous laugh. “Could our lives be any weirder?”

“Probably not,” Sam conceded.

When they returned to the library, Lucifer’s eyes immediately locked onto Maggie. His stomach lurched again and he suddenly remembered the conversation with Dean on the way back to the bunker. Specifically, the part where Dean suggested that Lucifer was only interested in Maggie for a casual tryst. Lucifer knew that wasn’t how he felt about Maggie, but tendrils of doubt began to creep into his mind. Was that what Maggie thought this was? He wanted to immediately answer no, but he couldn’t. For hundreds of thousands of years, he had been the ultimate evil to humanity. It was all but impossible for someone to feel anything but hate for him. Except perhaps lust. One of the seven most unholy sins... But lust was not love.

Sam cleared his throat and said, “So, uh, Maggie, this is-”

“Oh my God,” Maggie whispered with wide eyes.

“I mean, sure, if that’s how you feel,” Chuck said with a shrug. “But I’m just one of many. Y’know, Zeus, Odin, Ra... plenty of other good ones.”

"But, you’re... God. Capital ‘G’.”

“Just call me Chuck.”

Maggie sunk into the chair next to Lucifer. “This is unreal,” she marveled. She poured a glass of whiskey from the decanter on the table. As she was putting the glass stopper back in the bottle, Lucifer took it from her and drank straight from the decanter.

"I've created countless 'miracles,' but you, Maggie," Chuck said in a strained voice, "you are beyond anything I could have imagined."

Maggie looked highly uncomfortable with receiving such praise from the actual God. "I'm really nothing special," she mumbled. 

"Oh, but you are," Chuck insisted. "You did that which even I could do."

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and stared at the wood grain of the table. "I'm just a simple girl from Nebraska..."

"Exactly!" Chuck said with delight. "You are wholly human... and my son loves you."

Maggie flushed scarlet as Chuck continued. "My son... who swore he would never, could never, adore my creation more than he did me."

"Jesus Christ, Dad, enough," Lucifer grumbled. 

"Don't use your brother's name like that," Chuck reprimanded. 

"Okay, first, he is  _not_ my brother," Lucifer snapped. "And second, you're freaking her out."

“So, uh, Chuck,” Dean interjected. “You said once you talked to Lucifer, you had an idea about dealing with Michael and getting Mom back from Apocalypse World? Care to share with the class?”

“I recall also telling you that you weren’t going to like it,” Chuck reminded him.

“Don’t care. It’s more than we got for now, which is a giant goose egg.”

“Well, I can’t fix the issue for you, but I can give you the tools you need to succeed.”

“Alright,” Dean remarked. “So, what kind of cosmic screwdriver are we talkin’ about?”

“Lucifer’s grace.”

“Sorry, come again?” Sam started.

“Did you say, ‘Lucifer’s _grace?_ ’” Dean declared.

“If I restore Lucifer’s grace, you'll have what you need to get into the other timeline,” Chuck explained.

“You can do that?” Dean asked.

“Of course I can. I created him,” Chuck said matter-of-factly. “Don't forget, I rebuilt Castiel from the atomic level.”

“Okay, but then after we beat Micheal, we’re left with a fully charged Lucifer,” Sam pointed out.

“You can all fight Micheal and you might succeed. _Might._ But there’s one thing that could guarantee it,” Chuck said, his tone more forlorn than it had been moments ago.

“Well, what is it? Let’s get it and get it done,” Dean said.

Chuck didn’t answer. He looked at his beloved son, his expression pained and heavy with regret.

Lucifer met Chuck's gaze and sighed. “Giving me back the Mark,” he supplied.


End file.
